Quake Kids

Day before yesterday was the second anniversary of the earth quake that has shaken to their foundations the Capital of Azad Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, and other towns and villages in its vicinity and the northern parts of Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of people were either killed or rendered homeless. The news had disturbed me at that time but then distance, time and other disturbing news replaced its horror with other horrors - such as Baluchistan, Waziristan, and Masjid Haffsah in Islamabad -and daily grind called life.

Then while watching TV on 8 October I happened to watch the miserable conditions of the homeless victims of the quake whose lives have still not been put together. They are living in temporary shelters - up to twenty people to a room of 12 X 14 feet.

I must admit that TV is a powerful medium. Certain images you watch are so potent and so disturbing in their impact that they leave a indelible mark on your thoughts. ARY's Faiza was showing the misery and patience of young kids who were waiting in line with their metal pots in their hands for water that was barely trickling from a tiny rubber pipe. There were little girls and boys, who had big dreams in their hears, but were obliged to go to rickety schools whose fee their parents could hardly afford.

Faiza was focusing on the shattered lives of these children, their parents and grand parents who were waiting, probably in vain, for the money their governments had promised them two years ago to help build their houses and start new lives. Some of them had received only 25,000 rupees ($400) as initial installment, which they had been forced by circumstances to spend on the food stuffs and other basic necessities. The rest of the promised 175,000 had not reached them yet.

I am sure the money received from generous Pakistani and foreign donors was sitting "somewhere" but had not arrived where it actually belonged yet because the government of Azad kashmir, according to an official of an NGO, had repeatedly shot down some kind of "master plan" for one or another reason.

I am leaving for Pakistan this Saturday, the Eid Day, and I intend to go visit these forsaken places to see if I can be of any help. Insha Allah

Two thing, I think, I may be able to do: help make some kind of arrangement for drinking water; and try to establish free schools.

I have to find out the complete picture, first. Then get some people together and see how much money and resources I can come up with or collect and how much help I can get from governments of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir or Pakistani-Americans.